Provenance Note
The Sam Shepard Papers were purchased by the University of Texas Libraries in 2006.
Originally cataloged and opened for research by the Fine Arts Library, in December
2010 the
collection was transferred to the Ransom Center, where recent additions to the papers
were
processed and the entire collection re-cataloged.
In November 2011, the Ransom Center purchased material that was previously on deposit
at
the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia.
Additional material was also acquired from Shepard at that time. This material was
integrated into the existing arrangement in 2012.

Sam Shepard was born Samuel Shepard Rogers VII in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, on November
5,
1943. The son of an army officer, he spent his childhood living on different military
bases,
along with his mother, who was a teacher, and his two sisters. The family lived in
South
Dakota, Utah, Florida, and Guam, and eventually settled in Duarte, California, where
they
lived on an avocado ranch. He began acting and writing poetry while in high school,
and
worked as a stable hand at a horse ranch. After graduating in 1960, he attended Mount
San
Antonio Junior College to study agriculture. He quit school after one year to join
a
traveling theater group, the Bishop's Company Repertory Players.

In 1963, Shepard left the theater group and moved to New York to pursue an acting
career.
He shared an apartment with his old high school friend, Charles Mingus, Jr., son of
the
legendary jazz musician, who helped him get a job at jazz club, The Village Gate.
It was
there that Shepard met Ralph Cook, founder of the Theatre Genesis, who encouraged
him to
write plays. Shepard's first two plays, Cowboys (1964), and The Rock Garden (1964), were avant-garde one-act plays performed at
the Theatre Genesis. He quickly attracted a following in what became known as the
Off-Off-Broadway movement, being dubbed as "the one to
watch." He went on to write several more one-act plays, including the Obie Award
winners: Chicago (1965), Icarus' Mother (1965), and Red Cross (1966). He wrote his first full-length play, La Turista, in 1967, for which he also received an Obie Award. That
same year, Shepard began to play drums with the rock band The Holy Modal Rounders.
His
musical involvement influenced his writing leading to what are referred to as "the Rock plays," which include the Obie Award winning Melodrama Play (1968), Operation Sidewinder (1970), and Mad Dog Blues (1971).

Shepard married the actress O-Lan Jones in 1969, and they had a son, Jesse Mojo Shepard,
in
1970. From 1971 to 1973, the family lived in London, England, where Shepard continued
to
write plays. Works from this period include The Tooth of Crime (1972), which marked a stylistic departure from a
modernist to traditional style. Shepard returned to the U.S. in 1974, and settled
in San
Francisco where he became the playwright in residence at the Magic Theater from 1975
to
1983. Plays written and produced during this time include Curse of the Starving Class (1978), considered the first of his
plays about family where he uses the domestic drama formula to explore dysfunctional
individuals and families. He continued this exploration with Buried Child (1978), True West (1980), and Fool for Love (1983).

Other plays by Shepard include A Lie of the Mind (1985), States of Shock (1991), Simpatico (1993), Eyes for Consuela (1998), The Late Henry Moss (2000), Kicking a Dead Horse (2007), and Ages of the Moon (2009). He received numerous Obie Awards, as
well as a Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for Buried Child, and a Drama Desk
Award, a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award in
1986 for
A Lie of the Mind.

In addition to his success as a playwright, Shepard had a prolific acting career.
His
first role was in 1978 in the film Days of Heaven. It was on the
set of the film Frances in 1982, that he met Jessica Lange, leading
him to end his marriage to Jones in 1984. He and Lange have two children together,
Hannah
Jane and Samuel Walker Shepard.

Shepard appeared in over thirty movies including The Right Stuff (1983), Country (1984), Crimes of the Heart (1986),
Thunderheart (1992), Black Hawk Down (2001), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007),
and Blackthorn (2011). Shepard’s achievements in acting include an
Academy Award nomination for The Right Stuff, an Emmy Award
nomination and Golden Globe nomination for the TV movie Dash and Lilly (1999), and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination
for the TV movie Ruffian (2008).

His involvement in film also extended to screenwriting and directing. He wrote and
directed
the films Far North, released in 1988, and Silent Tongue, which was shown at both the Sundance and Cannes Film
Festivals in 1993. He also collaborated on screenplays with German director, Wim
Wenders. They co-wrote Paris, Texas, which won the Golden Palm Award at the
1984 Cannes Film Festival, as well as Don't Come Knocking, which was
entered into the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and starred Shepard in the lead role.

Shepard also published several short story collections including Motel Chronicles (1982), Great Dream of Heaven (2002), and Day Out of Days (2009). His stories appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the New York Times Magazine.

Shepard died July 30, 2017 at his home in Kentucky from complications of amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

In addition to material found within the Sam Shepard Papers, the following sources
were
used:

The Sam Shepard Papers consist of notebooks, drafts, publication proofs, screenplays,
scripts, production and publicity material, correspondence, printed material, photographs,
and awards belonging to the American playwright, author, and actor Sam Shepard. The
papers
document Shepard's various works for stage and screen, his collections of short stories
and
other writings, and his acting career. The materials date from 1965-2011, with the
bulk
dating from 1983-1987 and 2001-2009. They are organized into five series: I. Works,
1975-2010, undated; II. Acting, 1982-2011, undated; III. Correspondence, 1978-2010,
undated;
IV. Personal and Career-Related, 1965-2009, undated; and V. Works of Others, 1984-2006,
undated.

Series I. Works makes up the bulk of the papers and contains materials associated
with
Shepard's writings. It is subdivided into two subseries: A. Stage and Screen, 1976-2010,
undated; and B. Other Writings, 1975-2010, undated. Materials in each of these subseries
are
arranged in alphabetical order by title of work, and within each title, by chronological
order of creation, from early drafts to finished works. When applicable, related material
such as production and publicity material, playbills, reviews, and other items follow
the
drafts.

Subseries A. Stage and Screen primarily contains drafts of Shepard's stage plays and
screenplays. There is considerable material for the stage plays Ages of the Moon, Kicking a Dead Horse, Fool for Love, and A Lie of the Mind, including
revised versions of drafts and production material. Fool for Love, which was produced for both stage and screen, and
A Lie of the Mind were both directed by Shepard and both contain
rehearsal scripts and production notes. Of the screenplays in this subseries, Don't Come Knocking, Far North, and Paris, Texas are particularly
well represented. Because Shepard also directed Far North, there is a considerable amount of production material
present, including scripts with camera directions, notes on set design, shooting schedules,
and correspondence regarding casting. The material for Paris, Texas illustrates the various versions that the story went
through and includes some correspondence from his collaborator and the director of
the film,
Wim Wenders. Several titles reflect his collaboration with others including Joseph
Chaikin
and T-Bone Burnett. Most of the title pages of the more recent projects are signed
by
Shepard. Correspondence scattered throughout this series, including a small amount
of
Shepard's outgoing correspondence, is indexed at the end of the finding aid.

Also of interest in this subseries are twenty-six notebooks containing handwritten
notes
and ideas related to the plays Shepard wrote, films in which he acted, story ideas,
and his
travels. These notebooks provide a richly detailed perspective of Shepard's working
life,
and most cross genres, relating to his work as a writer, actor, and musician. One
notebook
from 1991 is inscribed to Shepard by Jessica Lange with a personal note about their
relationship. More than half of the notebooks are labeled by play title, film, geographic
location and/or other identifiers (blues film, fishing play, etc.). Original labels,
if
present, are transcribed in the container list in single quotes. The notebooks are
arranged
in rough chronological order. Additional notebooks that contain information relating
to only
one work are filed with that project.

Subseries B. Other Writings includes drafts and galley proofs for three published
short
story collections, Day Out of Days (2009), Great Dream of Heaven (2002), and Motel Chronicles (1982), as well as an article, foreword,
introduction, poems, song lyrics, stories published in magazines, and tributes. All
are
arranged alphabetically by title. The three short story collections underwent numerous
arrangements and revisions before publication, which is well documented in the papers.
Day Out of Days and Motel Chronicles also include several notebooks containing early
handwritten drafts of stories. Nearly all of his writings bear the month/year and
state or
country abbreviation for the location where the work was composed or revised, as in
"6/05 NY."

Series II. Acting contains scripts from Shepard’s acting projects including the films
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Baby Boom, Black Hawk Down, Blackthorn, Country, Crimes of the Heart, Mud, and Savannah. The play A Number, the TV movie Ruffian, and the TV pilot Tough Trade are also represented. The scripts are often heavily
annotated by Shepard and most include production material. A small amount of visual
material
is present for two films, Frances and The Right Stuff.

Series III. Correspondence contains incoming correspondence that spans the years 1978
to
2010. It includes letters from Woody Allen, Michael Attenborough, Michael Almereyda,
Judy
Boals, Joseph Chaikin, Johnny Dark, Richard Ford, Fiach MacConghail, Jesse Shepard,
Peter
Stampfel, Bob Wade, Tom Waits, and Wim Wenders, among others. Arranged alphabetically,
the
correspondence reflects the international scope of Shepard's works and recognition
of his
literary stature, as evidenced by interest in performing his works and numerous invitations
to appear at events worldwide. While friends often wrote to Shepard directly, much
of the
business correspondence was mediated by his agents Martha Luttrell of ICM (International
Creative Management) and Judy Boals, and is documented in this collection through
email
printouts. A complete index of all correspondent names in this collection is included
at the
end of the finding aid.

Series IV. Personal and Career Related contains a variety of material documenting
Shepard’s
career and interests. It is arranged in alphabetical order by topic or title. The
material
includes articles about Shepard in newspapers and magazines, awards, invitations and
public
appearances, photographs, reviews, and pencil and ink sketches. Awards include four
Obie
Awards from 1965-1973, and The Laurence Olivier Award nomination for West End Play
of the
Year for A Lie of the Mind. Documentation of Shepard's public
appearances include a joint appearance with his son, Jesse, at City Lights Booksellers
in
2003, a Gala Tribute to Jessica Lange in 2006, A Tribute to César Vallejo in 2007,
and a
story told at Toil and Trouble: Stories of Experiments Gone Wrong
for the storytelling series The Moth in 2008. The photographs range from a 1970 print
of
Shepard with the band The Holy Modal Rounders, to shots of Shepard fishing, horseback
riding, and other informal snapshots. The pencil and ink drawings feature people and
scenes
from various locations including Arizona, California, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico,
New
York, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming, from 1985 to 1988; as well as a cross-country
train ride in 1989.

Series V. Works of Others includes song lyrics by T-Bone Burnett and a silkscreen
print
from Kurt Vonnegut’s Freedom Portfolio series, inscribed and signed by the author.
Also
present are writings by Johnny Dark, Shepard's father-in-law from his marriage to
O-Lan
Jones; selections from Jack Kerouac's Big Sur; playscript drafts by
Sheila Tousey and Maria Vail based on Shepard’s works; a screenplay draft by Michael
Almereyda for Until the End of the World; a page proof of Ron
Kovic’s Around the World in Eight Days; and the text of
Harold Pinter's 2005 Nobel acceptance speech.

Some materials that contain contact information have been restricted to protect the
individual’s privacy. The originals were removed and have been replaced with redacted
photocopies.

Additional Sam Shepard material is housed at The Wittliff Collection of Southwestern
Writers at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

Non-manuscript items received with the papers were transferred to appropriate departments
within the Ransom Center. Included are numerous books; a music CD for a production
of The Late Henry Moss in San Francisco in 2000 (CD 0074); DVDs of
Ruffian and Wanderlust; VHSs of This So-Called Disaster, November 2002, and Jesse and Sam Shepard at
City Lights, April 24, 2003; production clappers from Far North and Silent Tongue; and a silver
business card case engraved "The Late Henry Moss, November
2000" with a paper document enclosed: "Certificate of
Death--THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT Sam Shepard IS DEAD--[signed] S. Penn, County
Clerk."

Non-manuscript items received with material acquired in 2011 were also transferred
to
appropriate departments within the Ransom Center and include: numerous books; a Brandeis
University Creative Arts Award (1984); two Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding New Play,
A Lie of the Mind (1985-1986); a Gradiva Award for Best Play, When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable) (1997); two unpublished,
non-commercial audio CDs – one labeled "from Toil and
Trouble" and is most likely audio from Toil and Trouble: Stories of Experiments Gone Wrong, held at The
Moth on May 29, 2008; the second labeled with the song titles: Raining in my Heart, Take Your Burden to the Lord, and Operator.